Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International speaks forcefully about the character and obligations of Sudan’s “Military Council”
Eric Reeves | April 18, 2019 | https://wp.me/s45rOG-9254
Two key excerpts:
• Concerning Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (“Hemeti”)
“The council named Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, “Hemeti,” the commander of the abusive Rapid Support Forces (RSF), as al-Burhan’s deputy. Human Rights Watch and others have documented serious crimes by the RSF in Darfur and conflict zones in Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile since 2013. It is also part of the Saudi-led coalition war in Yemen. Hemeti’s role as deputy head of the transitional military council should not make him immune to accountability for the crimes of forces he commanded, Human Rights Watch said.”
• Concerning mortality in the Darfur genocide:
Darfur has been the setting of a bloody conflict that has persisted since 2003 and continues to this day. An exact figure for the civilian death toll as a result of the conflict is unconfirmed, but some estimates have put it in excess of 500,000. The situation in Darfur was referred to the ICC in 2005 by the UN Security Council. The ICC charges against al-Bashir relate to events that took place between 2003 and 2008.
Sudan: Heed Calls for Justice: Al-Bashir, Other Rights Abusers Should be Held to Account
Human Rights Watch (Nairobi, April 18, 2019)
https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/04/18/sudan-heed-calls-justice
Sudan’s transitional military council should uphold their commitments to human rights and justice for past crimes by transferring Omar al-Bashir, the deposed president, and other Sudanese fugitives to the International Criminal Court (ICC), Human Rights Watch said today. ICC states parties should step up pressure on the council to surrender al-Bashir and other war crimes suspects to the Hague court without any further delay.
On April 17, 2019, media reported that al-Bashir was being held in Kobar prison, in Khartoum. The transitional military council has said they would not hand al-Bashir over to face justice at the ICC, but could try him at home or a forthcoming civilian government could do so.
“The news of al-Bashir’s detention adds a new twist to unfolding events in Sudan and reinforces protesters’ calls for justice and accountability,” said Jehanne Henry, associate Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “ICC states parties should use all inroads in Khartoum to secure the surrender of ICC fugitives to the Hague court, and take steps to address decades of repression and abuse.”
Since the council assumed control, the authorities have released many detainees, including Darfuri students held without charge since protests in December 2018, and have largely refrained from violently dispersing protests. But the authorities have yet to make clear their plans to hold accountable key figures who oversaw serious crimes in Darfur, Southern Kordofan, and elsewhere, or the killing of protesters.
Protests have continued, with calls for the immediate transfer of power to civilian rule, as well as for the arrest of all leaders of the former ruling National Congress Party (NCP) and former heads of Sudan’s national security agency, the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS). Protesters have also called for justice for a range of human rights violations, including protester killings, atrocities in Darfur and Port Sudan, and other crimes by al-Bashir’s government.
Protests have taken place in major Sudanese cities since mid-December, both in response to Sudan’s declining economy and for an end to al-Bashir’s rule. Sudanese security forces cracked down violently on those protests, using excessive lethal force to kill scores of protesters and rounding up hundreds, possibly thousands, for arrest and detention.
Sudanese monitors on the ground estimate that more than 100 protesters have been killed, including many, when protesters converged on the army headquarters in Khartoum prompting al-Bashir’s ouster. Media reported that in Darfur, crackdowns over the past week.
Al-Bashir was ousted on April 11, when then-Vice President and Defense Minister Awad Ibn Ouf dissolved Sudan’s government, suspended its constitution, and announced that a military council would take over for a two-year transitional period. He said al-Bashir was under house arrest in a “safe place.” The next day, Ibn Ouf, who is among the Sudanese officials under sanction by the United States government for crimes in Darfur, resigned and was replaced by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the inspector general of the armed forces and the commander of Sudanese forces fighting in the Saudi-led coalition’s war in Yemen.
Salah Gosh, the head of Sudan’s draconian NISS, also resigned. Gosh oversaw NISS from 2004 to 2009 and again from 2018 to 2019. He oversaw forces who cracked down with lethal violence on several protests, including in recent months and in September 2013 when security forces opened fire on protesters killing more than 170 on the streets of Khartoum, Omdurman, and other cities.
On April 13 in a speech as head of the military council, al-Burhan lifted the curfew imposed by al-Bashir, and pledged respect for human rights, accountability for corruption, and justice for killings of protesters and other human rights violations, among other promises. He said that some members of the former ruling NCP had been arrested. The council has since dismissed several top officials, including the prosecutor general.
However, the council named Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, “Hemeti,” the commander of the abusive Rapid Support Forces (RSF), as al-Burhan’s deputy. Human Rights Watch and others have documented serious crimes by the RSF in Darfur and conflict zones in Southern Kordofan and Blue Nile since 2013. It is also part of the Saudi-led coalition war in Yemen. Hemeti’s role as deputy head of the transitional military council should not make him immune to accountability for the crimes of forces he commanded, Human Rights Watch said.
Human Rights Watch has documented grave human rights violations and potential war crimes in Darfur, Southern Kordofan, and Blue Nile, as well as patterns of repression across the country, including killing protesters.
Al-Bashir is facing charges of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes at the ICC based on attacks against civilians in Darfur dating back to 2002 contained in an arrest warrant issued in 2009 and a second warrant issued in 2010.
ICC arrest warrants for four other Sudanese suspects are outstanding. These are for Ahmed Haroun, who was acting head of the NCP and former governor of Southern Kordofan state; Abdulraheem Mohammed Hussein, the former defense minister; Ali Kosheib, a militia leader; and Abdallah Banda Abakaer, leader of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), a rebel group in Darfur.
On March 31, 2005, the United Nations Security Council mandated the ICC prosecutor to investigate crimes in Darfur under resolution 1593. Sudan is not an ICC member.
“The dramatic developments in Sudan herald new openings to do right by victims of the violent crackdowns on protests and other crimes against civilians for the last three decades,” said Henry. “The transitional military council should act on its promises by handing al-Bashir and the others facing ICC arrest warrants over to the court at once and by investigating and prosecuting other abuses.”
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Why former Sudan president Omar al-Bashir must not escape justice, Amnesty International, 17 April 2019
Omar al-Bashir may have been deposed as President of Sudan after three decades of deeply repressive rule, but he has still not faced justice for the litany of grave human rights violations and crimes under international law he allegedly committed while in power.
• ICC arrest warrant
Al-Bashir is one of the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) longest-running fugitives. The Court has issued two arrest warrants for the former Sudanese leader – the first on 4 March 2009 and the second on 12 July 2010. He stands accused of criminal responsibility for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide following the killing, maiming, and torture of hundreds of thousands of people in the Sudanese region of Darfur.
• The Darfur conflict
Darfur has been the setting of a bloody conflict that has persisted since 2003 and continues to this day. An exact figure for the civilian death toll as a result of the conflict is unconfirmed, but some estimates have put it in excess of 500,000. The situation in Darfur was referred to the ICC in 2005 by the UN Security Council. The ICC charges against al-Bashir relate to events that took place between 2003 and 2008.
• The charges against al-Bashir
The ICC issued arrest warrants for al-Bashir on the basis that there are reasonable grounds to believe that, along with war crimes and crimes against humanity, he has committed genocide against the Fur, Massalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups. These groups were perceived to be close to the armed groups fighting the government. In all, al-Bashir faces five counts of war crimes, two counts of crimes against humanity and three counts of genocide in Darfur.
• Horrific human rights violations
The charges against al-Bashir relate to human rights violations carried out by his security forces including the Sudanese army and their allied Janjaweed militia, the police and the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS). The ICC says there are reasonable grounds to believe that al-Bashir played an “essential role” in organizing these groups.
During the campaign in Darfur, these forces were allegedly responsible for numerous unlawful attacks against civilians – mainly from the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa groups. These included the murder of thousands of civilians, the rape of thousands of women, the torture of countless civilians, the pillaging of towns and villages and the forcible transfer of hundreds of thousands of civilians.
• Accusation of genocide
The ICC says a core component of the Sudan government’s campaign against armed groups, in particular the Sudan Liberation Movement and the Justice and Equality Movement, was the unlawful attack on the civilian population of Darfur – mainly the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa groups.
Al-Bashir is accused of being responsible for pursuing the extermination of these groups. The Court found that “there are reasonable grounds to believe that Omar al-Bashir acted with specific intent to destroy in part the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups.”
• Chemical weapons
In 2016, an Amnesty International investigation gathered horrific evidence of the repeated use of what were believed to be chemical weapons used against civilians, including very young children, by Sudanese government forces in Jebel Marra region of Darfur. The scale and brutality of these attacks, which would also amount to war crimes rivals those previously investigated by the ICC. Amnesty International continues to document human rights violations carried out by Sudanese forces in Darfur.
• A fugitive from justice
All parties to the Rome Statute that set up the ICC are obliged under international law to arrest al-Bashir if he sets foot in their country. However, during his presidency al-Bashir travelled extensively throughout Africa and beyond without ever being arrested. South Africa, Uganda, Kenya, Chad, Malawi, the Central African Republic, Egypt and Jordan are among the countries that al-Bashir has visited without facing arrest.
• Time to act
It is an international scandal that al-Bashir has continued to evade arrest, and a betrayal of the hundreds of thousands of victims of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Darfur. It is now imperative that the transitional military authorities in Sudan hand over al-Bashir to the ICC and allow the many victims of the Darfur conflict to finally get justice.